Bud Plant To Retire; Catalog & On-Line Business For Sale
After 41 years in comics as one of the initial Direct Market distributors and stalwart mail-order companies, Bud Plant has apparently announced his retirement in a letter to his mailing list. Plant at one time operated the largest chain of comic stores in the US, and the industry's third-largest distributor, both of which he sold in 1988. The sale of his distribution company to Diamond vaulted that company to the forefront of the US comics business. The range of Plant's taste, rooted in classic comics illustration standards but also respectful of smaller, promising efforts of the kind he might discover at the 100s of shows he attended, did much to support the early years of the alternative comics and independent comics factions.

Plant would like to transfer his business to a worthy successor. "I am offering Bud Plant Comic Art, also known as Bud's Art Books, for sale. I'm sending this message out to everyone I know in the comic book industry and the book world. This is where I think I'll find the right buyer to take over. I'm hopeful the synergy between my long-established business, and another retailer or publisher, will be evident to the right person," he wrote in the letter.

Plant describes his business philosophy as based on providing the kind of service that he would want from a bookseller; decades of measurable success show how well this strategy has worked for Plant, who plans on continuing to follow several of his interests in business and personal ways.